The Debilitated Dilemma
by Amy227
Summary: Penny falls ill and Sheldon is the only one around to look after her.


Penny wasn't exactly in the best of moods, she'd just had an argument with Leonard and to top it all off, she was throwing up everywhere. Usually, Leonard would come to her apartment and talk to her until she had fallen asleep, but there wasn't much chance of that happening now. All of her other friends had gone to a concert so her best hope was one of the guys.

Firstly, there was Howard, and she there was no way in hell that she'd want to be left alone with him for obvious reasons. Secondly, there was Raj, but his selected mutism would prevent him from talking to her at all. So that left...

_Knock. Knock. Knock. _"Penny?" _Knock. Knock. Knock. _"Penny?" _Knock. Knock. Knock. _"Penny?"

_Speak of the devil…_ Penny thought. She took a deep sigh and realized that Sheldon was her last option.

"It's unlocked." She called, and then coughed when she remembered how tight her throat was. There was a silence as Sheldon didn't open the door. "Sheldon?" she frowned.

"I heard a cough." She heard Sheldon reply.

"Yeah, that was just me,"

"You're ill."

"Yes?"

"Ill means germs. I don't want germs." said Sheldon, still at the other side of the door, as though it was an obvious fact. Penny sighed again when she remembered Sheldon's fear of germs.

"Sheldon, if you don't get in here, I'll go into your apartment and sneeze on your comic books." There was another silence and she heard footsteps run quietly away from her apartment. A few moments later, she heard the footsteps return back towards her apartment and Sheldon opened the door wearing some kind of astronaut helmet and rubber gloves with some anti-bacteria spray.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Penny muttered underneath her breath.

"You said you were sneezable… when somebody sneezes the liquid droplets will stay in the air for a very long time and I'd rather not breath in your liquid droplets, Penny." Sheldon informed her as he sprayed the anti-bacteria in as many places possible.

"Whatever," groaned Penny. She couldn't help but think she'd be better off without him and his rants. "What did you want, anyway?"

"I heard you and Leonard fighting."

"Oh, don't worry about that, sweetie. Everybody fights once in a while, it's natural…" she said, trying to reassure him. She knew how much he panicked whenever she and Leonard fought and however much she was furious with Leonard, she didn't want to upset Sheldon.

"Nothing terminal, I hope?" said Sheldon, suppressing his emotion as he continued to spray all over Penny's apartment.

"Of course not. It was just a silly little argument; you know how me and Leonard are. Sheldon, that stuff really stinks, do you have to use the whole can in one room?" Penny's tone switched from patient and calm to irritated in a matter of seconds.

"It's better to be safe than sorry." Sheldon shrugged, but he put the can down all the same and sat in the chair furthest away from Penny.

"Well…" he continued, awkwardly. "Now that I've disinfected your apartment I think I should go."

"Oh, Sheldon… don't leave me, I've got nobody else to take care of me."

"Take care of you? It's relatively easy to take care of yourself, Penny; I've been doing it for some time now."

"Come on, Sheldon, I took care of you when you were ill!"

There was a silence and Sheldon considered it.

"Ugh… fine then. But I'm not staying for the night." Sheldon sighed, reluctantly. Penny gave a snort of laughter and was about to make a witty comment about how she didn't want him to be there the whole night anyway but, considering that he was staying there with her, she didn't want to seem too cheeky.

"Fine then," she said, putting on an artificial smile. Sheldon continued to look around the apartment in disgust of her organization skills along with the whole germ thing.

"Penny-" he began, but Penny cut him off.

"Yes, Sheldon, you can clean up." She sighed, though it was in amusement rather than exasperation. Sheldon nodded and began picking up stray clothes and goodness knows what else.

"So how come you don't talk about your family that much, Sheldon?" asked Penny, making polite conversation. Sheldon shrugged.

"I don't need my family." He said in a bored tone.

"Of course you do. Everybody needs family." She heard Sheldon snort but she decided to ignore him. "I may not get along with my family but I wouldn't swap them for anything." There was another silence. "I've never heard you talk about your dad before, what was he like?"

"He was an idiot."

There was another silence.

"Any particular reason?"

"He spent his life obtaining a small amount of money, of which he wasted on alcohol before lecturing my mother about how the money all goes to waste in the house. I don't know why she stayed with him. All he brought was fear and guilt into the house. Have you got a hamper?" Sheldon said suddenly when his hands were full with clothes.

"Uh, yeah but I don't know where it is. Just put them into the corner of the room and I'll sort it out later. He didn't ever hit you, did he?" Penny frowned at the thought. Sheldon shook his head and began folding them, neatly.

"Once or twice."

Penny didn't say anything for a moment. Sheldon had never mentioned his dad and just thinking about how he treated Sheldon and his mum made her angry.

"And what about Missy? And your brother?"

"I think he hit Missy _once_. My brother's also called George and I don't think my dad ever hit him. It was mainly me because I wasn't exactly his dream son. I'm not interested in football or any sports, for that matter. He thought I was weak. I think he thought that, by hitting me, it would toughen me up a little."

"What a bastard…" Penny muttered. If Sheldon had heard, then he'd ignored her and proceeded to put the clothes in the corner before picking up the rubbish. She'd never really considered Sheldon as a victim of an abusive dad before, he suppressed all of his emotions and acted like a robot, she'd never really spoken to him like a person before.

"Your mum's nice though." said Penny, remembering Mary from her visits. She smiled at the thought of her optimism.

"I suppose."

"You're lucky to have somebody like that in your life, Sheldon. Your mum is a really loving person and she did a good job raising three children." Sheldon made a weird noise, as though he was about to object but decided against it.

"I suppose." He repeated.

"What about your friends? Before Leonard, Howard and Raj, I mean."

"I didn't have any."

"None at all?"

"I didn't need friends."

"Everybody needs friends."

"Apparently not."

There was another silence.

"Sheldon… could you do me a favor?"

"That would depend on what it is."

"Could you sing me soft kitty?"


End file.
